Monday, December 31, 2012

This weekend consisted of painting, painting, trip to Lowe's, more painting, another trip to Lowe's, and more painting. I'm so very thankful for the help that we've had. We seriously would have been painting all week without it!

Then at night we'd collapse on the sofa and zone out.

Michael is finishing up a little painting that was left today and hopefully I'm about to start setting up Anne's room. I'm not nearly as overwhelmed as I have been so that's a good thing. It seems like things are finally starting to wind down! whew...

Friday, December 28, 2012

We are so so close to being finished with our renovation to the 3rd floor in our loft. Michael has been working his tail off all week cleaning all of the dust from the sheetrock and such. Now we're covering all of the stuff up there getting ready to paint.

Normally I'm not very patient when it comes to these types of projects, but add being 33 weeks pregnant to the mix and things get hairy pretty quickly.

I'm SO ready to be done and just want to get Anne's and our room back in order and then set up this sweet boy's nursery before he arrives. Is that too much to ask? I don't think so.

Okay...maybe I'm done venting for now.
I don't think I ever posted before photos, but basically this was one huge open space. We tore the plaster down and exposed the brick from three walls, removed sheetrock from ceiling, and added the walls that you see here...two bedrooms and a bathroom.

These original bead board ceilings are one of my favorite things. They're gonna be so great!

This will hopefully become a bathroom even though it's not much to look at right now. We're even talking about adding a claw foot tub...talk about making a women happy!

The plan is to have everything ready to paint by tomorrow. We'll have plenty of rollers (and food) if any of you really nice folks want to come help! :)
xo, Dawn

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Christmas morning at our house was pretty magical this year. We tried to keep the presents limited and focus on getting Anne things we knew she would enjoy and appreciate. That included a puppy sleeping bag, a few stuffed animals, clothes and books. She particularly loved her new diary that came with a lock! Seriously the best $8 I spent this Christmas!

This year we let Anne do some of her own shopping. I took her to the Dollar Tree and let her pick out presents for everyone on her list. She seriously got some of the BEST gifts for people...including this grabber for Adam and a back scratcher for Papa.

Papa stole the show and bought her an iPad mini. Now one of her favorite things to do is lay in her sleeping bag while playing her favorite games :)

But you know, if there's a cardboard box around it always becomes a toy!

I was so excited when I received this dress in the mail c/o Joules. Since it's not maternity I ordered a size bigger, which worked out perfectly! The fabric is so soft and I love the little fox button detail. I'm looking forward to ordering more from their website after baby :)

In other news, things are steadily moving along with this pregnancy. I'm finally starting to think about the nursery (now that our reno is wrapping up) and dream of what it might look like...about time right?! We're trying to keep it simple with this baby, the second time around you realize how much stuff you don't actually need for a little one.
Did you mother's go all out for #2's nursery? Or keep it simple? I'm trying to pretend we live in a tiny NYC apartment and don't have room for a huge nursery...so far it's working :)
xo, Dawn

Saturday, December 15, 2012

It's crazy that I'm already 31 weeks pregnant. That means that in 2 months (maybe less) we're gonna have a new baby boy in our family...and I'm so excited and can't fully imagine how it will be. I haven't even started nesting. I'm trying to put off until we finish the remodel upstairs...it killing me though!!! The only thing I've even purchased for this baby is a crib that I got from an auction for a steal. Hoping all of the construction will be wrapping up in the next few weeks so we can start to put together a little nursery for our guy.
All in all I'm gonna say this has been a great pregnancy so far (minus those first weeks of constant nausea.) I'm thankful to feel good most days and not too uncomfortable yet. Sleep is getting a little more tricky and my clothes are not fitting quite as well, but things are definitely good. I refuse to buy more maternity clothes...it seems like such a waste at this point. So, if you see me wearing the same things over and over again, don't judge.
How did you mamas do it? Did you buy lots of maternity clothes or just make do?
-Dawn

Thursday, December 13, 2012

I've mentioned before on this blog how much Anne loves to throw a party. She's all about the details! Since Michael's actual birthday fell on a Monday, it was hard to plan anything too fancy. We opted for a low key family meal together. We started with orange cinnamon rolls for breakfast...those things are just too yummy! And then after homemade chili for dinner, we enjoyed a beautiful cake that Anne got to decorate all by herself---she did most of the baking too.

That giggle gets me every time.

Times like these make my heart swell with joy, and I'm overwhelmed by how blessed I truly am.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

This Christmas season our church is doing something really cool. It's basically a movement to bless others. We've printed 12,000 sticky notes with this web address, and the goal is to attach these to a random act of kindness. If you visit the website, it will give you a little more info on how it works :)

Today Anne and I delivered cookies around our neighborhood... to local business owners and workers. It was such a blessing to see her get excited about giving and to see the people's smiles as they received them.

If you want, you should join in the fun!
Just grab a stack of sticky notes and write christmas-memo dot com on it and attach it to your random act of generosity.
xo-Dawn

Saturday, December 1, 2012

It's official. December is here and the Christmas festivities have begun! Last night we watched The Polar Express at the local theater and today was Pancake Day and the parade in town. It was so fun to walk out our front door and watch the parade...definitely a perk to living downtown!

It was such a fun filled morning with family and friends. I'm so thankful for this little town.